Players can eat nightshade, but this is not recommended in most situations, as this causes 100 life points of damage. When eaten the player's character will say, "Ahhhh! What have I done!"

Cave nightshade is untradeable, as it was once used in a popular scam to get players to kill themselves. Players needing food would be given nightshade in the hopes that they would eat it and be at such low health that it would kill them. Beasts of burden Summoning familiars cannot carry nightshade, as this is considered a 'trade'. However, nightshade can be banked by using the Winter Storage special move of a Pack yak and by using an Imp-in-a-box.

Even though Cave nightshade is untradeable, its approximate value can be derived from the price of Weapon poison++ (3), coming in at 10,159.

There are two spawns in the Skavid caves by the ogre city Gu'Tanoth south of Yanille. These spawns can be picked up without wearing gloves or gauntlets. Nightshade respawns between 10 and 60 seconds depending on how populated the world is. Higher populated worlds respawn nightshade faster than less populated worlds.

Nightshade may also be grown at Draynor Manor using the Farming skill and requires the player to wear gloves or gauntlets to successfully pick it. Bare-handed players won't be able to pick the nightshade and will also suffer a one-time poison damage for 20 life points. Cave nightshade is grown from belladonna seeds.

The locations of nightshade spawns are indicated by the yellow dots.

The location of the cave nightshade spawns in the Skavid caves indicated on the map. To enter the caves, players will need Skavid maps and Light sources. Also, a resource Locator from the Mobilising Armies minigame has a random chance of teleporting the player to a nightshade cave without the need for a light source or a map. (However, if after teleporting to a cave the player logs out while in the cave, when logging back in the player will be in the dark and will be attacked by stinging insects, but nothing would actually attack you)

Power gathering cave nightshade involves a pack yak with Winter Storage scrolls or magic boxes that have been turned into Imps-in-boxes. In short, the player goes to a cave with a nightshade spawn, gathers it each time it spawns, and banks it using the scroll or imp-in-a-box. Remember to bring a Skavid map and a light source (a wearable one like a Seer's headband or Mining helmet is recommended, since it saves inventory space). A wearable item that teleports the player near a bank is also useful to save time (and inventory space), such as a Ring of duelling to get to the bank chest at Castle Wars, TokKul-Zo to get to one of the Tzhaar City banks or a Ring of kinship to get to the banker in Daemonheim. TokKul-Zo and the ring of kinship have unlimited charges. The former is quite a bit faster but requires the completion of The Elder Kiln.

Magic boxes cost 750 coins each. Filling the inventory with imps-in-boxes and a skavid map will net up to 81 nightshades per trip: 54 banked by the imps-in-boxes (assuming no imp refuses) and 27 in inventory by discarding the magic boxes as they become empty. However, this will cost 60,750 coins for the magic boxes. For players unwilling to bear this cost, they can retain the magic boxes and only get up to 54 nightshades per trip. (The player can carry the empty boxes in inventory or, alternatively, bank the empty boxes using imps-in-boxes and carry out a full inventory.) The player can also use a Beast of Burden to carry empty magic boxes, even though it cannot be used to carry imps-in-boxes or nightshade.

With a completely full inventory, the player will need to temporarily drop an imp-in-a-box to open up an inventory slot to pick up the nightshade spawn. Once the nightshade is sent to the bank, the player picks up the dropped box (otherwise it will eventually disappear) and then repeats the process.

The nightshade's respawn time makes even power gathering a time-consuming activity. Some players cope with this as follows:

After gathering the nightshade in one cave, they run to the other nightshade cave. As long as run Energy lasts, the player can transit the caves faster than the time it takes nightshade to respawn in a cave.

Some switch worlds after getting a spawn, as the time to switch worlds is less than the nightshade's respawn time.

Some also bring noted items, a staff that provides free fire runes, and nature runes to high alchemy the items while waiting for the respawn.

Some bury the bones in the caves for slow prayer training. The northern nightshade cave is best for this as it has four bone respawns.

Some train combat in the southern nightshade cave as it has a rat that respawns quite quickly and is not particularly dangerous except to low-level players. Any combat style can be trained. Some players take a Crystal bow there once it has reached 1/10, to revert it to a Crystal seed in a fairly safe environment.

Some train fletching by adding feathers to bolts; this requires only 2 inventory spaces and is very fast fletching experience. Also, at higher fletching and magic levels, you can bring any type of gem tips and put them on the bolts and enchant them for decent magic experience.

During the Dream Mentor quest, If a cave nightshade is used on Cyrisus, the following message will appear: "How evil! Are you trying to kill him?"

Despite it saying "The nightshade was highly poisonous" upon eating, no poison is incurred, instead, the player is damaged for 100 life points.

Cave nightshade appears to be based partially on the terrestrial plant Atropa belladonna, commonly called 'deadly nightshade' or 'belladonna'. Deadly nightshade is poisonous and traditionally was used to poison drinks and as a weapon poison for arrows.